Before the Open (Mar 31)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia did the best. Europe is currently split. London, Belgium, Switzerland, Russia and Spain are doing well. Prague is the only noticeable down market. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.

The dollar is down. Oil and copper are down. Gold is flat, silver is down.
My conclusion from this weekend’s Index Report was that the market was in slightly better shape than expected. The S&P and Dow remain in consolidation patterns while the Russell small caps and Nas have already broken down. It’s a battle that should be resolved sooner rather than later. A few indicators that dropped to low level have curled up and now support a bounce. Sometimes bounces are just that, bounces that get sold into. But it’s not uncommon for bounces to keep going and going and before you know it, a full-blown rally has materialized and the bears are crushed again. I’m not making any predictions…all I’m saying is to not get overly bearish because I’m seeing little signs of strength.
Here’s the battle…big caps vs. small caps. The SPX is a couple good days from a new high. The small caps have a moderate block of resistance over head to contend with. Vertical rallies are more common than most traders think, so the bears need to be just as careful as the bulls. More after the open.

Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Travelers (TRV +0.60%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Sell’ at Guggenheim.
Edison International (EIX +2.60%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at UBS.
Cal-Maine Foods (CALM +1.05%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.77, well above consensus of $1.41.
Heartland Express (HTLD +0.98%) and Knight Transportation (KNX +0.41%) were both upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Longbow.
Men’s Wearhouse (MW +1.26%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Mizuho.
DTE Energy (DTE +0.37%) and Big Lots (BIG +1.92%) were both upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at KeyBanc.
Moody’s Investors Service placed Russia’s Baa1 government bond rating on review for downgrade.
Lockheed Martin (LMT +1.04%) was awarded a $610.9 million government contract modification for production of 92 one pack missiles, 50 launcher modification kits and associated ground equipment for the PATRIOT missle system.
Integrated Core Strategies reported a 4.8% passive stake in Penn Virginia (PVA +1.48%) .
Wexford Capital reported a 6.73% passive stake in Famous Dave’s (DAVE -4.39%) .
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved Biogen’s (BIIB -5.05%) drug Alprolix for patients with Hemophilia B.
Cascade Investment reported an 8.2% passive stake in the Thai Fund (TTF +1.03%) .
Target’s (TGT +0.40%) credit rating was cut to A from A+ by Standard & Poor’s, although the outlook was raised to Stable from Negative.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
9:45 Chicago PMI
10:30 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook
3:00 PM Janet Yellen speech
Notable earnings before today’s open: CALM, GLP, IOC
Notable earnings after today’s close: none
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers